Magic Kingdom
by VladimirsAngel
Summary: Newly updated to showcase the alternative end chapter I originally wrote for this story, for everyone who wanted to see a resolution to Raziel and Lupa's relationship. It involves sexual situations, kids, you have been warned...^_^ Please R & R.
1. I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore, Raz...

**MAGIC KINGDOM (A tale of Lupa & Raziel)**

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit-making, harmless piece of fanfic. Raziel belongs to Crystal Dynamics, Eidos, and the all the good people who created Legacy of Kain. Not to me. Lupa, however, is my responsibility *sighs*…for my sins…

**_Author's note: This story takes place during the very early stages of Soul Reaver 1, long before Lupa and Raziel ever drove Vladimir's Beetle off the cliffs in the Drowned Abbey…_**

"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die….."

In the Sanctuary of the Clans, Raziel, Reaver of Souls, ex-vampire and revenger of the Elder God, poked his head around the corner and stared. 

"Die, vampire scum!" and then a series of _thunking noises. _

"Uh, Lupa…" Raziel called, as loudly as he could over the noise. 

"Not now! Busy!" _Thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-_

Raziel, sensing he was in no danger whatsoever, walked out and leant against a nearby pillar, spear in hand, watching the scene before him with an amused look on his half-face.

The wolf-girl was engaged in hitting a Dumahim fledgling on the head with the blunt end of a broken staff. The young vampire was growling in confusion and vague pain. The constant thumping was starting to give it a headache. 

"Do you want any help with that?" Raziel asked after a few minutes had gone by.

"No thanks. I'm doing great."

"He – um – doesn't seem to be getting any deader, that's all. What _is that you're doing, anyway? Some form of slow torture?"_

"I'm smiting evil things. What's wrong with that?"

The fledgling stumbled as a particularly hard blow caught it on the collarbone.

"Nothing, nothing at all," said Raziel. "Smiting evil – great hobby – I do it all the time. It's just that my smiting tends to involve the evil actually dying."

Lupa stopped _thunking long enough to take a good look at the slightly dazed vampire._

"He's getting there," she said, as the fledgling growled and shook its head, trying to steady itself. 

Raziel, seeing her prepare to begin her assault with a very blunt instrument once more, intervened. A couple of blows with the spear, and the vampire was bleeding: a further swipe, and it was writhing in its death throes. 

Lupa dropped her stick as Raziel drew in the fledgling's soul, and put her hands on her hips.

"What?" Raziel asked, catching the tone of her stance. 

"That was _my vampire! __I was killing him!"_

"You were giving him a mild migraine," corrected Raziel, trying to be diplomatic. "What I did just then? _That was killing him."_

Lupa rested her weight on one foot and sulked. "Don't see why you had to interfere, anyway," she muttered. "What do you care if it takes five minutes or five days to kill a Dumahim?"

"I may be a vampire killer," said Raziel, taking her by the shoulder with one claw and leading her away from the scene, "but I am not an advocate of excess cruelty. That vampire would have had a headache for weeks. Do you know how difficult it is to get ibuprofen in Nosgoth?"

They walked for a while aimlessly, ending up dangling their feet over the edge of the Abyss while Lupa told Raziel about her day.

"I figured it had probably been a bad day at work," said Raziel. Lupa sniffed.

"I don't have good days, Raz."

"You should let me come back with you," he said. "I'd teach them a thing or two." He held up a heavily clawed hand, and waggled the claws in turn at her. "Or three."

"I wish," said Lupa, kicking loose stones over the edge and watching them plummet into nothingness. "There are quite a few people I know who deserve to be on the business end of a pointy stick."

"So let me come with you when you go," he repeated. Lupa shook her head.

"It's a nice thought, but…nah. It would take way too much explaining."

"What's to explain? I could just pop in, terrorise them a bit, go spectral again – they'd never know I was there."

"Ohh, I think they'd know," said Lupa, dryly. 

She got up and strolled along the very rim of the drop, her arms held wide for balance, wobbling from side to side for effect. 

"Don't do that," said Raziel. The Abyss always gave him the creeps. Even though he knew his wings were capable of carrying him over the worse parts of the chasm, he still hated that jump, with the constant awareness of the water surging far below. It brought back bad memories. 

Lupa bounced up and down on a rock outcrop looking out over towards Raziel's clan territory. The stone made an ugly, cracking sound, and Raziel winced. 

"Lupa, I'm serious, stop doing that." 

The wolf-girl turned on her heel, about to deliver some witty retort, but the stone beneath her crumbled beneath her and she dropped with a howl.

Raziel was at the edge in seconds, peering down into the drop, ready to make the jump if he had to: but Lupa's stubby claws were dug into the crumbling rock a few feet below, and her yellow eyes looked up at him in pure terror. 

"There's a reason why I tell you not to do things, you know," said Raziel, calmly slamming his own claws into the rock face and hanging himself over the edge to reach down towards her. "Like when I told you "Don't say 'Wow, you're ugly,'" when you first meet Kain…and the time I told you not to go paddling in the Drowned Abbey…and the time when…"

"Yeah, okay, I get it," came the somewhat strained response from below, "I get the point, Mom. Now can you get on with the rescuing?"

Raziel stretched his thin arm down towards her. Lupa climbed up it like a monkey up a rope and clung, trembling, to his bony flank as he pulled himself back onto the platform, wings flaring for extra lift. 

Lupa and Raziel's relationship was a complicated one: they had met several months previously when the wolf-girl had managed to stumble through one of the warp-gates while searching for a short cut to Disneyworld. Raziel had been somewhat busy at the time battling vampires, and when a hand had tapped him on the shoulder from behind he had whirled ready to strike: only to find Lupa staring at him with huge eyes and commenting, "You aren't Mickey Mouse and this sure isn't the Magic Kingdom, is it?"

She hadn't seemed to be afraid of him at all. 

That was the thing that had puzzled him most. His appearance wasn't designed to inspire trust or liking in anyone. Even his vampire self, although handsome, had not been the sort of person you'd happily ask to baby-sit your children. But Lupa had trusted him immediately, if only to the extent that she wholly believed he was one of the good guys.

"You're rather a strange girl, aren't you?" had been his immediate response after the who-the-hell-are-yous and the where-did-you-come-froms had been exchanged. Lupa had shrugged, indicating with her stance her yellow wolf-eyes and her sharp ears, her long tail, and then grinned at him. 

"You aren't Joe Normal yourself, are ya?" she had said. 

Lupa in her turn had, once they had spent a day or so walking around Nosgoth and talking, begun to feel sorry for Raziel. She had in fact been petrified when she had first laid eyes on the snarling, emaciated blue demon with incandescent eyes and no lower jaw – but Lupa had been brought up on western movies where the good guys are instantly recognised by their strong jawlines and their white hats, and the bad guys are always dark and covered in warts or scars. The things the blue guy was fighting looked _so_ much darker and uglier than he did, lower jaw or no. 

So she had approached him, tapped him on the arm, and nearly had a heart attack when he turned, claws raised, to face her. 

But when Lupa got frightened, she babbled. So she'd yammered some nonsense at him, and watched as he broke off his attack in response to her civil (if ridiculous) words. 

After that, she came back to see him nearly every day. He taught her the basics of how to fight, so that she wouldn't be constantly in danger while travelling with him. She told him about the office where she worked, about her life, about her family. Eventually, after some prodding, he had returned the favour in kind.

"If your family lived in my world," she had said after hearing about Raziel's de-winging, "you'd be undergoing several years worth of therapy, do you know that?"

"I rather imagine myself and my brothers would all have been taken into care," returned Raziel, dead-pan. "But it doesn't quite work the same here."

"Do you have psychiatrists in this place?"

"Psychiatrists? I'm going to be quite certain saying no before you even tell me."

"I was just curious. How come you're not depressed? Your father ruined your life."

"I _am depressed," Raziel had replied. "But us vampire-types tend towards physical solutions to our mental problems."_

"Meaning…?"

"I'm going to kill him."

"Oh." 

Lupa had looked at her feet for a moment. "Fair enough, then," she'd responded, cheerfully. "Can I help?"

Okay, so they haven't got in a car yet…but do you like it? *grins* Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed "Driving Miss Raziel" – U R all great! 


	2. That's not a knife...

****

MAGIC KINGDOM

Chapter 2: That's not a knife…

Disclaimer: This is a non-profit-making, harmless piece of fluffy fanfic fun. Raziel, Kain, Nosgoth and all the rest of its inhabitants belong to Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, and all the rest of the good people who created Legacy of Kain. The wolf-girl, Lupa, however, is my creation and as such belongs to me.

"So that guy…"

"…was my brother, yes."

They were walking back to the Sanctuary of the Clans. Raziel's new gift of phasing through walls while in the spectral realm had proved somewhat difficult for Lupa, who claimed she didn't like being spectral anyway and that phasing made her feel sick. 

"But you have other brothers?"

"Yes."

"Are they all that gross?"

"I have no idea. I haven't seen them for several millennia."

Raziel seemed in ill temper for some reason, marching ahead, cloven hooves clicking on the hard ground. Lupa jogged to keep up.

"He was pretty gross, though, right?" she said, trying to cheer him out of it. 

"Yes, Lupa, he was gross. He was a vile heaving monster, unworthy of a place on this earth. Are we done discussing him now? I don't really want to talk about it."

Raziel pushed open the door to the warp-gate and it nearly swung shut in Lupa's face.

"Raz, wait…" 

She caught up with him leaning against the gate itself. His posture was slumped and weary. The fighting staff he held dangled loosely between his claws, pointed end in the dust. 

"Oh, Raz, did he hurt you?" 

She hurried to his side, eyes flicking all over him, searching for wounds. "Are you okay?" 

"He didn't hurt me." Raziel straightened up. "A huge, slow, stupid beast like him? I don't think so."

"But he was your brother," said Lupa, slowly understanding, "and though you hated him you didn't really want to be a murderer."

Raziel looked at her for a moment with his glowing, featureless eyes, then activated the warp-gate and beckoned her to follow him without another word.

"This place smells funky," Lupa complained as Raziel twisted reality around him and they both emerged into the material realm once again. "Did something die? Cos it smells like something died."

Raziel, eyeing the huge, ornate double-doors right in front of them with deep suspicion, made no comment.

"Or maybe it's the drains," Lupa persisted, on her seemingly unstoppable train of thought. "Do you even _have_ drains in this place? Running water? A sauna?"

"Lupa," said Raziel, as calmly as he could manage, "please be a nice girl and shut up."

His air of unease finally filtered through to her, and she made a zipping motion in front of her mouth. 

Not for the first time, Raziel wished he had a weapon he could carry through the spectral realm. Armed only with his claws and anger, he pushed at the doors. They opened.

Before stepping over the threshold, Raziel turned to his companion and grasped her by the shoulders.

"Lupa, I want you to listen to me carefully," he said, watching her eyes widen at his serious tone. "Don't say anything, just listen. This is Kain's throne room. We're going to go in. But," he added sternly as Lupa began to make a comment, "you are not to get involved. If he kills me –"

She gasped. 

"If he kills me," Raziel repeated patiently, "I want you to go back to the Elder's room and wait for me. Don't worry about my safety. Kain will kill you if he catches you, and you-" his eyes creased in a slight smile "- you don't bounce back from death like I do."

Lupa nodded, looking a little dumbstruck.

"Plus," said Raziel, wagging one claw at her severely, "Other things not to do. Do not say, "Wow, you're ugly," like you did to Melchaiah. Do not chew gum and then flick it at him. And especially do not make any jokes about him having a really big weapon."

Lupa smirked: but the expression quickly faded as Raziel strode out into the room, and she followed him, not too closely, trying to hide behind the pillars.

Kain's throne room was massive. A high, arched roof, supported by many columns, covered a room empty save for a giant, ugly seat in the centre. Lupa, peering out from behind the pillar, watched Raziel approach the throne, and nearly stopped breathing when the double-doors slammed shut behind her with a very final _click_. 

"Raziel!"

Dropping into the spectral realm, feeling bruised and battered, Raziel saw Lupa running towards him. He scrabbled to his feet, already searching for the portal that would take him back to battle Kain again. 

"Raziel, stop being such an idiot!" 

Raziel swiped at a nearby wraith. "I'm going to get him," he said evenly. 

"No you're not! I know you told me not to say anything, but that IS a really big weapon! It fires lightning and everything!"

"It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it that counts," retorted Raziel, eyeing his claws with slight satisfaction. He had drawn Kain's blood once. He could do it again.

He made the switch between spectral and material, ignoring Lupa's cries of warning, and ran directly at his tormentor, snarling like a furious beast. Kain stood perfectly still, the Soul Reaver humming in his hands. He drew back the sword to strike –

"Hey! Ugly boy!"

Startled, both Kain and Raziel turned to look. Lupa was sprinting towards Kain at breakneck speed, her denim jacket grasped in her hands. "Call that thing a pig-sticker?" she taunted. "That's a baby's butter-knife."

Kain turned an incredulous look on Raziel, who shrugged helplessly, as if to say, _I don't know. She's definitely not with me._

"Feel the wrath of _my_ mighty weapon, vampire scum!"

"Oh no," Raziel muttered to himself, as Lupa launched herself into the air and flung her jacket over Kain's head. The master vampire staggered briefly, his head swathed in faded denim, the Soul Reaver swinging wildly in an attempt to dislodge her. The wolf-girl clung like a limpet. 

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she yelled, legs digging into Kain's ribs. "Hit him! Hit him now! I've got him!"

Raziel took two swipes with his talons and Kain roared in fury. His arms came up: Lupa was thrown through the air, striking a column hard and dropping to the floor in a huddle, her jacket covering her face. Raziel made it just one step towards her, afraid she was dead, before Kain smacked him with tremendous force between the wings and he fell to his knees in agony. 

"Lupa." Raziel's voice sounded calm now, even slightly amused.

"Raziel? Where are you? I can't see…"

The room seemed very dark, and slightly warm. Lupa opened her eyes fully. Still nothing. Only darkness.

"Ahhhh! I've gone blind! He's blinded me!"

Raziel lifted up a corner of the denim jacket, gently. Blue light flooded Lupa's world. 

"Okay, now I feel stupid," she said, sitting up and rubbing her head ruefully where a sizeable lump was forming. "Hey…what's that?"

"What," said Raziel, in tones Lupa thought sounded slightly smug, "this old thing?" 

The wraith-blade, curling around his arm like a snake, hummed at her happily. 

"Isn't that…"

"The baby's butter-knife, yes."

He made a practice pass with it. "It seems Kain has given me a birthday present. And after all those years, I thought he didn't care."

"If he's in a good mood, I'd sting him for back-dated pocket-money, too," Lupa advised. She glanced about the room. It was definitely lacking in Kain. "Where'd he go? Did you kill him?"

"Unfortunately not," Raziel replied. "He nearly killed me, though. Odd…"

"What?"

"I could have sworn he was laughing at me."

Lupa snorted. 

"Am I allowed to make jokes about big weapons now?" she asked. "That thing's almost bigger than you are."

"You're allowed two jokes about big weapons. Starting now and finishing when we leave this chamber."

"Okay! There was a guy who walked into a talent agency. He had a box with him. He said to the agent, 'Can I interest you in seeing a twelve-inch pianist?….no wait…I think I got that the wrong way round…there was a guy who walked into a talent agency…"

Lupa scrabbled away from the edge of the Abyss, breathing hard, while Raziel watched her with narrowed eyes. 

"Feeling better?" he asked. "Our little dice with death made us feel more alive? Hmmm?"

"Oh, shut up, fly-boy."

She stared out across the other side of the lake. "Hey. Where does that go?"

"That's brother Dumah's place," replied Raziel. "That's where we're going next. "

"Does it have a beach, by any chance?" asked Lupa, hopefully. "A pool? Somewhere I can get a drink?"


	3. He Ain't Heavy, He's just got three stak...

****

MAGIC KINGDOM 

Chapter 3: He Ain't Heavy, He's Just Got Three Stakes in Him

Disclaimer: Raziel, his brothers and the world of Nosgoth belong to Eidos and the good people at Crystal Dynamics, and everyone else at Silicon Knights and such who created Legacy of Kain. I make no claim on them. Lupa the wolf-girl is however entirely my fault and I accept responsibility *sighs*. Apologies if this one is a little disjointed! I was being an insomniac at the time and was also possibly on a sugar high.

The killing of Raziel's other brothers had been quite a task. Raziel himself became angrier and more sarcastic as he worked his way steadily through his family, exacting vengeance and trading witty and caustic remarks. Lupa followed in his wake, nervously eating chocolate and trailing a spare fighting staff behind her, just in case.

"Your brother got his butt cemented to the wall?" Lupa said incredulously as Raziel, between bouts, slipped back into the spectral realm to eat. "How dumb is that? What, did he think he was making a fashion statement or something?"

"Zephon always liked to think he was more attractive than me," said Raziel, glaring warningly at a wraith, which skittered out of his way. "It honestly wasn't something that bothered me all those years ago, but now, I beg to differ."

"Is there a plan? To kill him, I mean."

"Uh…not a plan so much…"

"You're going to run screaming at him and hit him, aren't you," said Lupa, in the world-weary tones of one who has seen it all before.

"Essentially? Yes."

He made a practice swipe with the Reaver and the wraith retreated, hissing, to a safe distance. "Right. You sit tight by that torch up there, you'll be quite safe."

"Safe? Next to the decapitated human corpse? Okey-dokey."

Lupa sat down on a rock as Raziel returned them both to the material world, and watched the ensuing combat with slight trepidation: those claws were awfully big…

"Lupa!" 

Raziel was running at a dead sprint directly towards her, holding a ball of –

"Oh, what is _that_?" Lupa moaned, trying to shuffle away from him. "Don't tell me that's what it smells like…"

Raziel leapt back in shock as the ball of red goo he was holding abruptly caught light on the torch flame. Instinctively, he hurled the burning thing from him, and it struck Zephon in the face. The spider-beast roared in agony. 

Lupa and Raziel looked at each other. Lupa grinned.

"Okay," said Raziel, after a few seconds, "new plan."

"Go get more glowing red crap," said Lupa, patting him on the shoulder encouragingly. 

On the edge of the Abyss, Raziel looked over at the broken bridge that hung from the entrance to Dumah's territory. 

"I think this is going to involve a little swim," he said, and Lupa groaned. "What? This water even looks clean. It's running water. No living – or dead – things in it. Apart from me and you, in a minute."

"I hate this," Lupa groaned, grabbed Raziel's proffered claw, and prepared for the icy shock of the water as Raziel threw himself over the edge without any trace of hesitation.

"I'm not going in there and that's final."

In the Drowned Abbey, Raziel, cheerfully doing the backstroke across what had been Rahab's chamber, looked up at Lupa resentfully.

"I finally found you a pool and you won't even try it out? Ungrateful woman."

Lupa, who was crouched in the very centre of the tallest platform above the water, dipped a toe into the water and shuddered in disgust. "It's freezing," she pointed out. "And it looks dirty. Did you ever consider if Rahab bothered to get out to go to the toilet? Did he ever even _wash_?"

Raziel's only answer was a spray of water thrown up by the beating of his ragged wings. Lupa spluttered and shook her ears in revulsion.

"Ohh, you are in so much trouble, vamp-boy."

"Come in here and do something about it, then," taunted Raziel, treading water in the middle of the room.

Lupa almost looked as if she were considering it: then snapped out of it and scowled.

"Very clever. I'm still not coming in."

"Fine," said Raziel, "stay there. I'll just let you sit there and entertain the Rahabim."

He dived with a splash, hooves kicking.

"Rahabim, pah," Lupa muttered, glancing about her and seeing nothing. She huddled around her knees on the rock. It was cold in Rahab's chamber, and the pale light filtering in through the broken windows was doing nothing to make the place look more cheerful. The water was still and green –

__

Gloop.

A bubble broke the surface, followed by a series of ripples as a dark shadow cruised just underneath the water, then dived out of sight again. Lupa's eyes widened.

__

Gloop.

Another shape, this time unmistakably the speckled hood of a Rahabim, broke surface a mere yard or so away from Lupa's platform. She screamed and stood up, teetering on the edge of the stone: and it was at this point that Raziel's claws closed around her ankles and pulled her in.

There was a long, watery interlude, during which Lupa was fighting to breathe, and then Raziel dragged her out, gasping, onto the steps of his clan ground. 

"Are you all right?" he asked, bending over her. She slapped him, hard.

"Jerk!"

"I see at least you haven't drowned," said Raziel, not put out in the slightest. "I was dreading the idea of having to give you the kiss of life. Lungs don't work, you see. Oh, and no mouth, coming to think of it."

Lupa struggled away from him, dripping. Her arms gave out and she flopped onto her side.

"Oh, now, don't hurt yourself," Raziel said, sounding concerned.

"Don't – touch – me!" Lupa gasped. "I need – to breathe – you idiot! Didn't you think of that? I'm not like you! I'm not dead!"

"I took a calculated risk. And you're still not dead, are you?"

"Not the point. Piss off."

Raziel knelt beside her and propped her soaking body up on his knees. She protested, weakly. 

"I'm sorry," he said. Lupa used a word that even Kain would have balked at saying, and his eyebrows rose. "Such language! Keep that up and I won't let you take me shopping at the – what was it – mall?"

Lupa opened one eye and looked at him askance. 

"You'll come shopping with me? Real shopping? And coffee? _Really_, Raz?"

He nodded.

"In my world?"

Again, he nodded, this time holding up one claw.

"But on one condition," he said. 

Lupa stood in the valley, coat wrapped around her, and shivered. She was still wet from her brief plunge into the lake below Dumah's territory, and the wind was bitter. The snow drifted down relentlessly from above, and Raziel had disappeared around the bend on the trail, leaving her alone. He returned some minutes later, the Soul Reaver glowing red in his hands.

"Here," he said, "stand close to this thing."

It was burning like a brand, and Lupa gratefully walked by his sword arm side as they proceeded up the snowy valley.

"When you said you'd come back with me on one condition," Lupa began, as he helped her scale a tall pillar, his claws dug deep into the stone, "I wasn't anticipating snow. Or how cold it would be. Can I change my mind now? I think I'll cope without you on my next shopping spree."

"No," said Raziel. "I'm looking forward to it now. I want to see how many shop assistants I can frighten. Come on."

"And whose brilliant idea was it to take the stakes out?" Lupa wailed. Raziel, at a full sprint and still accelerating, ran past her and his hooves sparked on the floor as he cornered. Behind them, unseen, the great weight of Dumah's footsteps rumbled through the tunnels. 

"He's still coming! Raz, wait up!"

Raziel had skidded to a halt in the central chamber of Dumah's palace, and Lupa almost collided with him as she came bolting out of the tunnels. "What? Why are we stopping? What?"

Raziel cocked his head to one side, listening. 

"I don't hear anything," he said. 

Lupa tried to calm her breathing long enough to listen: and sure enough Dumah's following footsteps had ceased.

"He's buggered off," she said.

"What?"

"He has, he's buggered off."

They proceeded back into the tunnels with caution. A surreptitious glance into Dumah's chamber revealed that yes, indeed, Dumah had returned to his throne room and was wandering about aimlessly, kicking at the carpet.

Raziel frowned. 

"Dumah? Dumbass, more like. Let me ask you something," Lupa whispered. "He wasn't by any chance dropped on his head as a child, was he?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Raziel whispered back. "Possibly a case of all brawn and no brain…"

He stepped out into plain view of the throne room and waved the Soul Reaver cheerily in the air. 

"Hey, Dumah! Over here! Did you miss me?"

Dumah grunted and started thumping towards the doorway.

"What are you doing?" Lupa hissed. 

"I've figured it out! We have to keep his minuscule attention span occupied! Give me a hand and be ready to run like hell."

Lupa half-heartedly stepped up beside him and bounced on her heels. "Hey, Dumbass!" she cried. "How slow can you go?"

"And to think, you threw your jacket over _Kain_'s head, but you're scared of _Dumah_," said Raziel disparagingly, as they both ran for it.

Dumah kept on their heels all the way to the central chamber, where Raziel was worried for a while that his brother was losing interest – so Lupa threw M&M's at his head while Raziel waited in the entrance to the next tunnel, poised to run. 

The chocolate assault eventually goaded Dumah into chasing Raziel again. Lupa followed more slowly as Dumah thundered out into the furnace room, and finally realised what Raziel had worked out back at the throne room.

"He's gonna burn him," she breathed. "Hey! Raz! You made me waste good chocolate on someone you're gonna incinerate?"

Raziel, leaning on the levers, gave her an exasperated look, and then the whole room erupted in flame.

Next…a shopping spree…anyone interested and wanna come along? 


	4. Retail Therapy

**MAGIC KINGDOM**

**Chapter 4: Retail Therapy**

**_Disclaimer:_**_ Raziel, Nosgoth and all its inhabitants belong to Eidos and the cheerful crowd at Crystal Dynamics who created Legacy of Kain. Kurt Wagner belongs to Marvel Comics (even if he's not always around!). The wolf-girl, Lupa, is my own creation and as such belongs to me. Heel, girl! _

***smiles* wow, lots of people want to be at the mall with Raz and Lupa! I promise I'll try and fit everyone in at various points. Please don't be cross if it doesn't happen right away!**

**By the way,  She-SmaugGuardian-of-Tears…*awww…little cub so cute!!!***

***Lupa grins and hugs Syvia right back* thankyou!**

Lupa pushed open the door of the house and stepped into the hall.

"Kurt!" she called.

There was no reply. Raziel cautiously followed, keeping his wings resolutely folded close to his spine in case of ornaments. 

After the defeat of Dumah, Raziel had kept his promise: they had found the warp-gate that carried Lupa between Nosgoth and her world, which she referred to as The Nexus, and passed through it together, with only a brief hiatus while Raziel tried to constrict things. 

They had stepped out onto a tree-lined urban street. Raziel stood still: raised his head, as if testing the air, and his eyes glowed suspiciously in the early morning light. 

"What's the problem?" Lupa asked.

"Nothing," said Raziel, scraping one hoof on the tarmac, as if testing its durability. "I thought there'd be more people at the mall, that's all."

"This isn't the mall," said Lupa. "This is Kurt's house. He just doesn't seem to be in."

"I am in," objected a voice from upstairs. "More to the point, I am in the bath. What do you want, _meine freundin_?"

"We're going shopping," Lupa called, bouncing on the bottom step of the stairs. "Do you want to come along?"

There was no reply, and a sound of splashing. Kurt Wagner poked his head over the bannisters, water dripping from his dark hair. "In a word?" he said. "No. I have a date."

He craned his neck a little. "Who's that with you?"

"This is Raziel," Lupa said. "He is the Reaver of Souls, Slayer of Vampires, and Revenger of the Elder God. I want to buy him a T-shirt and possibly some funky little earrings."

The mutant waved one hand in a friendly fashion. "Nice to meet you, Raziel. Now, with all due respect, can you both please go away? I have to get ready, and Lupa, you know how long it takes to dry off if you're _flauschig*_ all over."

"Ku-_rt_?"

"Ye-_es_?"

"Can I borrow some money?"

"This is the Nexus Mall," said Lupa, gesturing to indicate the towering glass-and-steel building just ahead of them. "A mere short walk from Kurt's house, and here you go. Retail therapy and caffeine heaven, all in one easy-access area."

Raziel looked up at the mall and again shuffled one hoof, as if uneasy. His wings beat once at his back, fractiously.

"Look," said Lupa, rounding on him, "what is wrong with you? You've been trying to hide behind things all the way here. Don't think I didn't notice."

He gave in.

"Won't people think I look odd?" he asked. 

"Claws and weird eyes come as standard round here, babe," said Lupa, flirting her tail. "Kurt comes shopping out here all the time, and he looks twice as blue and demonic as you."

He did not look convinced.

"You'll be fine," Lupa wheedled. "There are _aliens_ who come shopping at this place. Tentacles. Eyes on stalks. You're practically a pin-up, Raz, trust me."

Raziel raised one eyebrow, incredulous. "Compared to most of the clientele at the coffee place we're going to, I'd ask you out in a second," Lupa continued. "Come on. I haven't come all this way and had to sweet-talk money out of Kurt for nothing. Besides, you owe me a packet of M&M's, boy."

She started to walk up to the automatic doors. 

"Really?" said Raziel, slightly flattered. "You'd ask me out?"

Lupa abruptly turned and poked him in the arm, hard, with one stubby claw.

"Ouch," he complained. "What was that for?"

"You'll be slightly less conspicuous without a damn great wraith-blade on your arm. I've injured you – and lo, it has vanished. Now hurry up! We're wasting good shopping time."

"No," said Raziel patiently. 

"How about this one?"

"No. I told you already."

A pause. 

"Oh, now, this one…this one I like. Just try it on, _please_?"

Raziel looked at the stetson with weary resignation. It was black, unassuming, and had a leather band studded with animal teeth around it.

"If I try it, then can we go?"

"I suppose," said Lupa, grumpily. 

Raziel grabbed the hat and jammed it over his black hair. "There. I look stupid. Are you happy?"

"Actually," said the assistant, leaning over and ignoring the incandescant anger in Raziel's eyes, "I think it looks kinda cute."

"I look cute!?" Raziel exploded, tearing the hat from his head in a hurry and flinging it down.

The assistant, whose name-badge read "Hi, I'm Silveriss, May I Help You?" looked slightly perturbed.

"Raziel," Lupa hissed, "you're scaring people." Raziel glared at her and went to stand by a rack of cowboy outfits and masks, back turned, wings raised angrily. 

"He's really not scaring me," said Silveriss, smiling. "I had three vampires in here already this morning to buy silly string and green deely-boppers. _That_ was the scary part. I was just wondering how angry he'd get if I told him he was even cuter when he's cross."

"Probably best not to go there," Lupa advised. 

They both regarded Raziel, who was picking at feather boas with his heavy talons, and grinned at each other. "Pink's not your colour," Lupa called, and he glowered menacingly.

"He's not from around here, is he?" asked Silveriss. 

"Not exactly. I sort of fell into his world via a trans-dimensional warp gate while I was trying to get to see the Halloween Parade at Disneyworld. You know how it can be with those gates…you can end up in Alberquerque if you're not careful."

"He looks a little –"

"Dead? Yeah, well," said Lupa, dismissively, "nobody's perfect."

"I was gonna say pale. But dead comes closer to it, I guess."

"I'm ignoring you," said Raziel to Lupa, somewhat paradoxically, as they wandered towards the cinema end of the complex. Lupa, trailing a hat-box from her hand (she'd bought the stetson from Silveriss anyway, with a view to foisting it off on Raziel later) pouted.

"Why?"

"Because."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Why?"

"Because – look, I'm not having this conversation," said Raziel, exasperated. "We've been into at least twenty shops and you have tried to make me wear-" he held up both sets of claws, counting off on them – "three hideous shirts, one with pineapples on, a heavy golden chain with a gold…what was it?"

"A boxing glove," said Lupa miserably.

"Right, gold boxing glove on it, a black leather coat that smelt of Dark Gods know what, and I would go on but look, I've run out of claws."

They sat down on a bench outside the cinema, Raziel still broadcasting waves of disapproval. Lupa decided it was best not to try and apologise, and went for the all-purpose remedy of distraction instead.

"Hey!" she said suddenly. "I know what would cheer you up! Let's go see a movie!"

Raziel attracted more attention in the lobby of the cinema, for some reason: the cinema staff watched him warily as he knelt down to peer, fascinated, at the workings of the popcorn machine. Lupa was at the kiosk, buying tickets: she then wandered off in the vague direction of the ice-cream stand. 

Raziel watched the grains of popcorn circulating behind the plexiglass – he sneakily aimed a fire glyph at the boxes behind the counter and watched the staff scurry to control the sudden explosion of popcorn that resulted. His eyes narrowed in amusement.

"What are you up to?" Lupa asked, suspiciously, returning to his side carrying a waffle cone with real crushed strawberry sauce, and eyed the three assistants with brooms who were moodily sweeping popcorn up into towering white piles.

"Nothing," said Raziel innocently. "Can I have some of this white stuff, please? It looks interesting."

"You want popcorn? Sure," said Lupa agreeably, dismissing any contemplation of how Raziel would eat the stuff from her mind. She leant on the counter and caught the eye of the girl at the till.

"Welcome to the Nexus Cinema," the girl said. "My name is Venris. What can I get you?"

Lupa glanced back at Raziel. 

"You want sweet, salt, butter, toffee?"

"Don't complicate this with choices," admonished Raziel. "You pick the one you like."

"What's the point in me doing that? I'm buying it for you."

"But I've never had it before! How would I know what flavour I like? I was bowing to your superior judgement in these matters!"

Lupa turned back to face Venris, exasperation showing on her face.

"Have you two been going out long?" asked the girl, sympathetically. "And can you please ask him not to do whatever it was he did again? There aren't enough brooms in the world if the spare popcorn stock goes up."

"Not long, no," said Lupa, not bothering to point out that they weren't an item at all, "and we're not likely to stay together if he keeps on behaving like that." 

She glared at Raziel's back.

"I hate him sometimes. What do you think I should get him?" she asked.

"I'd say toffee with extra butter on top," Venris said. "He's way too skinny, girl. He needs feeding up. Would you like any candy with that? We have M&Ms…."

"Raziel!" Lupa called, imperiously.

Two hours later, and Raziel strode rapidly from the theatre, Lupa jogging to keep up. They were arguing.

"It didn't make sense!"

"I thought you'd like it! There were dead things! They got shot!"

"Yes," said Raziel, dangerously, "what were those things? Melchahim?"

"Zombies, Raz. They were zombies."

"And why was that woman fighting in a dress? Most impractical, I'd have thought."

"She just was! Okay?"

"Not okay!"

Lupa sighed, giving up.

"Okay," she said. "Maybe you're more of a westerns type of guy. I'm sorry. I really thought you'd like it."

"Fine, then," said Raziel, forgiving her at least in part and chivalrously taking her shopping bags from her. "Now. You mentioned coffee?"

"I did," said Lupa, gratefully clutching at any option that would absolve her from having to discuss the film some more.

"Then we shall have coffee," said Raziel magnanimously. "And you can explain to me what the hell an Umbrella is."


	5. Caffeine and Sympathy

**MAGIC KINGDOM**

**Chapter 5: Caffeine and Sympathy**

Disclaimer: *takes deep breath…here we go again* Raziel, Nosgoth and all its inhabitants belong to Eidos and the good people at Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights who created Legacy of Kain. Kurt Wagner (blue fur and all!) belongs to Marvel Comics. Lupa, the wolf-girl, belongs to me.

**_Venris :*munches happily on Pez* My grasp of German is mostly vague memory of school and luck. Danke schoen!_**

**_She-Smaug-Guardian-of-Tears: *pets Donovan* Awww. I'm sorry you didn't get to be in this one! Next time? (and by the way, Lupa will go ape!!)Plus, yes, I saw that movie…*sniggers*_**

**_Thanks for reading, Chalcedony Blue. I'm trying to fit everyone in as best I can! Soon!_**

**_Thanks for all the reviews from readers new & old! Keep 'em coming…_**

Lupa moodily stirred her cappuccino with a long plastic spoon and watched Raziel as he speared packets of sugar with his talons.

This was Vervain's, an exclusive little coffee bar on the edge of the Nexus Mall. Exclusive in the sense that it was dark, smoky, and played host to clients not normally found at your local Starbucks…Raziel felt almost at home. Yellow, feral eyes blinked at him from the gloom: people bared long fangs in laughter and played poker for kittens.

Lupa pulled the new Stetson from its box and plunked it on her head, flattening her ears. Raziel, having destroyed all the sugar in the bowl, started in on the plastic straws, ignoring his espresso. 

"Raz."

Lupa had also commandeered three of the straws: one was now stuck under each arm and the third held under her chin.

"Hey, Raz. Look. I'm Dumah."

She slumped back in her seat in a parody of death. 

"Oh, when will my well-meaning but kinda dumb brother Raziel come and release me from these deadly wooden stakes?"

Raziel gave her one of his "don't-mess-with-me" looks.

"Of course," the pseudo-Dumah went on, "if he chooses to torch my hideous living corpse while I am still skewered and helpless, that would be the smart option."

"I wanted to talk to him," Raziel said, flicking sugar grains about. "Besides…I'm not the type to stab someone in the back like that."

Lupa removed her straws and sat up.

"You wouldn't have _had_ to! He was stabbed in the front, back and sides_ already_ from what I recall!"

"Not the point," said Raziel, mildly. He put one end of a straw into his coffee cup and started to feed the other end through a rip in his cowl. There was a protracted sucking noise, like a swimming pool draining very fast, and Raziel set his cup aside. Lupa was watching him with quiet horror.

"Do me a favour and never tell me how you did that," she said. Raziel's expression was, as usual, hidden, but he somehow gave the impression of grinning. "There's a guy I know at work who drinks his coffee like that, and he's fully equipped with jaw, tongue, everything."

"I'm just uniquely talented."

Lupa snorted: but before she could come up with a suitable retort, someone lifted the Stetson from her head with his tail and placed it on his own.

"Mr Wagner, that's my hat," objected Lupa, chuckling. "Well, actually it's Raziel's, he just doesn't realise how much he wants it yet."

Raziel met the mutant's eyes – very similar to his own, as they were featureless, glowing, and at the moment, amused – and nodded briefly in acknowledgement.

"I'm not staying," said Nightcrawler, "I wouldn't want to interrupt your little liason…"

Lupa and Raziel glanced at each other.

"It's not a liason, Kurt. I'm trying to change his image. You know…persuade him to dump the "I stole my clothes from medieval corpses" look and go for something with a bit more style."

"This from the woman wearing a Pokemon T-shirt," said Kurt, gently. "Still. Whatever you say. It's _not_ a date, it's a makeover. Although somehow I don't think that makes it any better."

"I'm going for more coffee," said Raziel abruptly, and vanished into the crowd around the counter. 

Lupa frowned. "Go away, Kurt, you're scaring my new friend."

"I think you're doing a very good job of that all on your own," laughed the mutant. "Like I said, I'm not staying. Just thought I'd see how you were getting on. I'm supposed to be meeting Venris at the cinema in ten minutes."

He turned, headed for the door: at the last moment turned back. 

"If you really want to change his image," he called, "try this!"

Lupa automatically snatched the thing out of the air as he threw it at her. It looked rather like a watch, but the many buttons on its display and the fact that it didn't seem to show the time belied its innocent shape. 

"Is this what I think it is?" Lupa shouted, but too late: Nightcrawler was gone, taking the Stetson with him.

"Excuse me, is this cappuccino for you?"

Lupa turned to see a girl smiling and cheerfully holding up a mug full of froth. "There's this guy at the counter asked me if I could bring it over to the "girl with the ears" – I guess that's you, huh…"

"Yeah, I guess," said Lupa, silently fuming. "Thanks. If you happen to be going back that way, can you tell the "guy without the jaw" that he needn't bother coming back to the table? I think I'll just leave him to go bother some girl _without_ ears."

The girl laughed. "Your boyfriend, right?" she said. 

"Why does everyone assume that? No. He's not. I don't go for the ten-years-dead thing, personally."

Raziel chose that moment to reappear, clutching a tiny espresso mug in his huge claws. "Ah," he said to the girl, "you brought it. Thank you."

"No problem. I was going this way anyhow." She held out a hand to Lupa. "I'm Syvia. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Lupa," said Lupa, shaking the hand. "This waste of good life force over here is Raziel. I apologise in advance for his behaviour."

"And I apologise in advance for hers," said Raziel, looking daggers at Lupa. 

Syvia chuckled. "You guys don't seem to like each other much," she said. "And everyone knows what _that _means."

"I don't," said Raziel, quickly.

"Sit down," offered Lupa expansively, changing the subject without difficulty, "have some popcorn. I bought it for him but he can't seem to get a grip on it and I don't have all day to feed it to him grain by grain."

Syvia dug into the snacks, in between staring at Raziel. "Are you, like, a vampire?" she asked, eventually. 

"I was," Raziel replied. "I got better."

"How do you recover from vampirism?" Syvia wondered.

"Lots of time," said Raziel, gloomily, "and a great deal of water."

Later, as they were walking back together along the south side of the mall, Lupa dug the watch-like device out of her pocket and turned it over and over in her hands, scrutinising it. Kurt's image inducer…the tiny piece of holographic technology that allowed a blue furry mutant to pass for human in a good light (as long as he didn't try to pick anything up with his tail). But what could it do for Raziel?

"Raz," she said, "have you got any pictures of you before you got the Abyss treatment?"

"This is you?"

"It was."

"Wow."

They were back in Nosgoth, standing in Raziel's old clan territory, in a small chamber set apart from the rest. Lupa held her flaming torch high. The vampire Raziel glared down at them from the wall, his yellow cat-eyes severe. The painting was old, but not ruined by time. 

"I'm surprised Kain didn't destroy it," Raziel said, softly. 

"No wings…"

The Raziel in the painting stood proudly, arms folded, claws gleaming. But there were no magnificent dragonish wings arching at his back.

"No," Raziel muttered. "There wasn't time to have a painting done before they - and I – were destroyed."

He turned away from the picture and seemed to be observing the blank wall opposite.

Lupa stared at vampire Raziel as if unable to tear her eyes from him. "He looks a lot angrier than you," she commented, eventually. 

Raziel turned back at that and his eyes burnt from within. "No-one is angrier than me," he growled.

The wolf-girl's ears flattened against her skull: her eyes went wide and dark. In her friend's voice was all the fury of a vampire cheated of his prey, plus several millennia of just being mightily pissed off. "I'm sorry," said Raziel, almost immediately, wishing he hadn't brought her here at all. "It's just that – well, wouldn't you be angry if you used to look like that and now you look like a refugee from that film – what was it again?"

"_Resident Evil_," said Lupa, still looking at him warily.

He walked back to her side and put a claw on her arm. "I'm sorry if I scared you."

"Pah," said Lupa, dismissively. "You don't scare me, ya big bag of bones." She gave him a push. "Can we go back to Dumah's place?"

"We can. I'm wondering why…"

"I want to build a snowman. Can we?"

"A snowman…"

"Please, Raz?"

Raziel realised he was being steered away from the little chamber and its painting on the wall. 

"No," he said, sternly. Lupa pouted.

"No? But why not? You'll love it. It'll be fun."

"This is a Lupa-ploy to try and distract me," said Raziel, allowing himself to be guided towards the warp-gate. " But I recognise it as such and am unaffected by pouting and sulking and other devilish devices designed to make me feel guilty. So no. No snowmen."

Lupa's lower lip trembled.

"But if you're very lucky," Raziel added generously, "I may throw some snowballs around."

Lupa cheered and bounced on her heels: for although Raziel had spotted her ill-disguised attempts to cheer him up, he had not spotted her carefully programming the tiny image inducer with new data under cover of her jacket. She slipped the device back into her pocket and followed him through the warp-gate without a word.


	6. Seeing Double

****

MAGIC KINGDOM

Chapter 6 – Seeing Double

Disclaimer: Raziel, Nosgoth and everything pertaining to Legacy of Kain belongs to Eidos, Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights (otherwise known as the Knights Who Say Ni!! *well…not really!*). Lupa and Vladimir (The Terrible Two) are my responsibility and belong to me.

__

This is a hastily written, short chapter…sorry if it makes no sense! Thank you for all your reviews! I really appreciate them. ^_^

The vampire Raziel stared at himself in the mirror. One set of heavy yellow claws came up, gingerly, to touch his face, his jaw, his long cheekbones, as if in disbelief. He twisted his head to appraise the wings that lay furled at his back…

"Lupa?"

Raziel's voice echoed in the tunnels of Dumah's palace. Vampire Raziel, turned, guiltily. A stray feather dropped from the white angel's wings that sprouted from his shoulders. 

"What are you doing down there?"

"Damn," Vampire Raziel muttered, "wrong type of wings again…"

He tapped delicately at a watch-like device on his wrist, and his form melted away like frost under the sun to reveal only Lupa, frowning, as Raziel walked round the corner and regarded her with suspicion.

"You look like you're up to something," was his only comment, then he stalked past her, gathering her up with a cock of his head. Lupa followed, glowering and stabbing at the image inducer with one finger. 

The snow opportunities within Dumah's realm exhausted at last (and Lupa's whining about being _cold_ and _wet_ and _miserable_ having eventually got to Raziel) they were headed back to the Silenced Cathedral, for reasons best known to Raziel alone. Lupa was not happy about this idea, either.

"Spiders, Raz…"

"Not strictly speaking," Raziel corrected. "Spider-_ish_."

"Arachnid life-forms! Not a good thing!"

Raziel ignored her and took one step forward onto the drawbridge.

"Zephon's dead, right? So why are we back here? Shouldn't we be going after Kain again? Or Turel? We didn't kill Turel yet. Where does he live? I just don't really see why –"

"Lupa!"

Raziel's eyes flared angrily. She subsided.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I have this irrational fear. I will be master of it. Just not today. It's not like I'm scared of moths or cheese like Vladimir."

"Who's Vladimir? Oh…he's your housemate, isn't he?"

"Yes."  
"The one who once gave food poisoning to an entire roomful of people with one round of buttered toast?"

"You have to remember the bad things about everybody, don't you," said Lupa, following him into the gloom. 

"He scares me already," retorted Raziel, "and I haven't even met him yet."

A lot of the Zephonim inside the Cathedral were already dead: but the sounds of rustling, rasping, and scuffling inside the walls indicated that many still remained. Raziel walked ahead, the Soul Reaver burning like a brand. 

"I just realised," said Lupa, ignoring his repeated requests for silence, "you managed to change the subject very skilfully back there. You still haven't told me why we're back here."

"Haven't I?" said Raziel innocently, and hurried around a corner. The Zephonim crouched there immediately engaged him in battle. "Oh look. A vampire. Duty calls."

To Lupa, it seemed to take a good deal longer than normal for Raziel to despatch the vampire. She was waiting, hands on hips, for him as he returned. 

"Didn't work," she said. "Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"What we're doing back here in this ancient ecclesiastical hole!"

Raziel's shoulders sagged: and in a creature of his build, this was impressively melancholic.

"If you must know," he said, "seeing that painting reminded me of the time before…the days when I was still Kain's favoured son."

Lupa sighed internally: she had hoped that the snowball fight would have distracted him. Obviously this memory was a lurking iceberg, nine-tenths below surface. 

"Zephon and I used to get along okay sometimes," Raziel said. "and we…used to share stuff."

"Stuff?"

"You know," said Raziel, shuffling one hoof uneasily, "we were brothers. We shared things. Instruments of torture…double-headed axes…toys…"

"Toys!?"

Raziel looked as embarrassed as was possible. 

"Wait a minute," said Lupa, frowning. "You're seriously telling me we came all the way back to this vermin-infested hellhole so you could look for an old _teddy bear _you used to have?"

She fixed him with a stern glare for all of a minute, then exploded into giggles.

"Mwahhaahahahaha….!"

Raziel bore this outburst stolidly. 

"…hahhahahaha…teddy bear….hahahahaha….."

Lupa collapsed against one of the organ-pipes, helpless with mirth.

"I could have said we were here for my seven-piece torture set," said Raziel after a moment or so, "but no, you instantly assume it's something cute and incongruous."

Lupa recovered herself enough to respond.

"You guys were already adults when Kain brought you back," she said, still grinning. "Why on earth would you have toys?"

Raziel shuffled again. "Kain gave them to us," he said. "I think he was worried about being a bad father. That we were having a deprived upbringing?"

"So he gave you toys. I had no idea he was such a sweet guy."

"Well, not first of all," said Raziel, reasonably. "First he gave us puppies. But Melchiah rather ruined that one for everybody and he never gave us pets again after that."

He pressed part of the wall, hard, and a secret door slid back, revealing a shallow alcove. A large, rusty axe rested inside, and a lot of dust, but nothing else. 

"No teddy, huh," said Lupa, noting Raziel's crestfallen expression. "Was it a special teddy, den?"

Raziel pushed the panel shut and walked away without a word.

"Hey, Raz…"

Lupa scurried after him.

"I'll buy you a new plush toy if you want," she called. "Any type you like! How about one of those little cute blue guys from the Disney Store? You thought they were good, didn't ya? Raz…wait up!"

Raziel stood at the edge of the Abyss, and gazed in. 

He had been standing there, with his back turned to her, for over an hour, oblivious to her pleas that he come back to the Nexus and she'd buy him any amount of stuffed animals, if only he'd come away from the edge and come with her. She'd given up after about six attempts, and was now sat dangling her legs over the drop, fiddling with something in her hands. 

The ex-vampire stood like a statue on the edge, seemingly unapproachable, obviously depressed. 

"You disgust me sometimes, you know that?" said a voice from behind him. He turned.

Vampire Raziel was standing there, arms folded, dragon wings arching at his back. His dark mouth was curled in a devil's smile, the fang tips poking out over the lower lip in a snaggle-toothed manner. 

Raziel was so surprised he nearly lost his footing on the cliff: but something about the way his vampire self was grinning seemed to remind him of someone…

"You stand there, all melancholy, not having any fun, and boring your poor friend Lupa to tears," Vampire Raziel said, almost petulantly. 

"Lupa?" said Raziel, taking a step forward. "Is that you?"

His other self giggled in a most un-Raziel kind of way. 

"It's me!" he said, smugly. "Isn't it cool? It's Kurt's. I borrowed it for you. Do you want to try?"

He unbuckled the device from around his wrist, and almost immediately Lupa's lupine features emerged from behind the hologram. She tossed the thing to him. Raziel held it in his claws in slight awe. To look like his old self again! How many times had he imagined that over the years?

"Go on," Lupa begged, "it took me ages to get it calibrated right. You have no idea how hard it was. My first few attempts made you look more like Frankenstein's monster…"

"Thanks!" said Raziel, sarcastically.

"only pink…."

"What?"

"…and with bigger hips…"

"_What?_!"

"Just try it, please? I worked hard on that."

Raziel strapped it onto his wrist and pressed the pad on the face that activated it: then looked down at his claws in confusion. 

"This is weird," he said. "I don't feel any different."

"Well, you won't," said Lupa, who was staring at him intently, "it's just an illusion…but trust me, you really _look _different. For a start, your lips are moving when you talk."

"Really? They are?"

He twisted to try and snatch a look at the phantom wings. 

"Plus," said Lupa, in a very small voice, "you're kind of _hot_."


	7. Innocence

****

MAGIC KINGDOM  


Chapter 7 – Innocence

__

Disclaimer: (wow is this story going on for ages!!) Raziel, Nosgoth and all its inhabitants belong to Eidos, Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights – those happy people who invented Legacy of Kain. Kurt Wagner (the fuzzy elf) belongs to Marvel Comics. Lupa and Vladimir (never to be separated) belong to me! Donovan (the black-cub) is the property of SheSmaug Guardian-of-Tears. I'm sorry if any details in this story clash with updates made on Donovan's story in the meantime, or if I've got anything hideously wrong – not intentional!

__

Thankyou for all your reviews! 

*Raziel cuddles his new plushie…Lupa jealously tries to take it from him…Vladimir smacks them both between the eyes with a spoon to stop the squabbling*

On with the story…

Raziel spread his wings and watched the light filter through them, his sulphurous eyes alight with joy. "This is wonderful!" he said, turning to Lupa and scooping her up with that ridiculous strength she'd come to rely on over the months. "Thank you!"

Lupa dangled in his grasp, feet several inches from the ground, and smiled. 

"I'm glad you're happy," she said. "But please, Raz, remember, this isn't real. It's not forever."

He put his head on one side, teasing. "Don't spoil my fun, wolf," he admonished, and set her gently back down. She watched him as he stood, weight leant on one hip, his scarf hanging from his shoulder and his cruel mouth quirking in a grin. 

"You really were beautiful, you know," she said, a little sadly.

Raziel blinked at her in surprise, but before he could comment, a fledgling vampire flung itself out of the ground at his feet and growled. 

Raziel took a step back, lip curling in disdain. The vampire met his eyes in slight disbelief. 

"Do you think you recognise me, child?" Raziel snapped imperiously, folding his arms. The creature stared at him in vague confusion, but without fear.

"Lord Raziel…?"

Raziel reached out and put a claw on the fledgling's shoulder, in an almost kindly manner. "What is your name?"

"Rob," said the vampire. Raziel smiled. 

"It's nice to know someone still recognises me, Rob. A shame you won't last long enough to spread the word." He gestured: fire sparked between his claws and the vampire ignited like an oil-soaked rag.

"There are vampires called Rob?" Lupa asked incredulously, as they strolled away from the glowing remains and in the general direction of the warp-gate. 

"Oh, yes," said Raziel. "Lots. It's a popular name. Right up there with Clem and Sharon and Dwight."

"But you're called Raziel."

"My parents were cruel."

Kurt Wagner grinned to himself as he peered out of his bedroom window to see who was knocking on the door, and teleported down to let them in. Lupa seemed pensive: the vampire Raziel positively cheerful. 

"It's a useful little thing, _ja,_ Raziel?"

"Indeed," Raziel replied, accepting the offered mug of coffee. "I don't know why you don't use it more often."

Kurt smiled.

"I like to think that my blue fuzzy exterior isn't hideously unattractive as it is," he said. "Being furry isn't a problem, is it, Lupa?"

"What? Oh…no. No, it's not."

Nightcrawler gave her a look so old-fashioned as to be positively prehistoric, and picked up some empty mugs. 

"Lupa? Why don't you come and give me a hand in the kitchen with the clearing up?"

"What? I'm not cleaning your house…."

She broke off. He was glaring at her meaningfully. "Oh. Okay. I'll help. Make yourself comfortable, Raz."

Raziel waved his mug at her in farewell as the door closed behind her.

"All right," Lupa muttered. "What is it?"

"Suppose you tell me?"

"Kurt, I'm not playing this game…"

"Oh no?" Nightcrawler swung himself up and perched on the welsh dresser. "So what kind of game _are_ you playing? I thought you and Vladimir were –"

Lupa made a choked sound of half-amusement, half-horror. 

"Me and 'Mir? Well, that breaks all previous boundaries of _yuck_."

"So, then," said Kurt. "Is this vampire-type your new thing?"

Lupa shuffled uncomfortably. "Shut _up_…"

"Oh, you do like him then?"

"It's not that simple, Kurt. You know what he really looks like…what he really _is_…besides he is _so_ much the older man, it would never work out…"

Kurt Wagner tutted between his fangs and flicked his tail in disapproval. 

"Lupa d'Acosta, I'm surprised at you! I never thought you were one to judge by appearances alone…"

Lupa went quiet at that: and she set into the washing-up without another word.

It was only later when they were walking back to the Nexus Mall with a view to possibly trying to see another movie, that Raziel said: 

"So, what did he want?"

Lupa, who had been deep in contemplation of whether chocolate or strawberry ice-cream was the best plan for her evening snack, said: "What?"

"Kurt. He seemed to want to talk to you."

"Oh, that," said the wolf-girl, dismissively, "he was just wondering when he gets his image inducer back."

The vampire looked briefly stricken at the thought of his new image being taken away from him so soon.

"He wasn't desperate for it or anything," Lupa added, quickly. 

Her head went up: she sniffed at the air in sudden suspicion. Raziel looked about the quiet mall and could see nothing unusual: late shoppers, a few hangers-on around the water feature in the centre.

"What is it?"

"I smell wolf," Lupa growled. She hurried up the steps to the cinema, turning into the corner by the pretzel wagon, and pounced on what to Raziel looked like a patch of shadow.

The shadow yelped and bared white milk-teeth in anger. In Lupa's unrelenting grasp, it took more cohesive form: a struggling, scuffling wolf-cub, black as coal, eyes glinting up at Lupa suspiciously. 

Lupa held the cub up by the scruff and they eyeballed each other for several minutes.

"You're a funny sort of wolf," the cub said, eventually, breaking the silence. 

"You're a funny sort of kid," said Lupa, unimpressed, and continued to dangle the interloper by his neck-ruff until Raziel, worried that the cub was going to choke or bite her, whichever came naturally first, grabbed him from her. She growled at him. 

"What's the problem?" he demanded. "Surely it's allowed to have more than one wolf in this world."

"This is _my_ part of the world," said Lupa, sullenly. "He smells new. I never smelt anyone like him before. I find that a little threatening. And besides, I hate children. They're noisy and untidy and they don't know when not to bite."

Raziel regarded the cub in his arms, which was currently broadcasting that particular brand of wide-eyed cuteness only available to baby predators.

"He doesn't look particularly threatening to me," he said. 

"You tell her, Dad," said the cub, and Lupa lunged to catch him as Raziel dropped him like a hot brick.

Accusations rapidly filled the air.

"You have a _son_?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why are you hanging around with this bitch, Dad?"

Raziel rapped the cub sharply across the muzzle with his claws. "Language!"

"But that's what she is," protested the cub. "A female wolf, right?"

"That's _she-wolf_ to you, fluffy," Lupa snapped. "Let me at the little squirt! I'll teach him to be cheeky to his elders and alphas…"

Raziel calmly held out a restraining arm in front of Lupa, and set the cub gently down on the ground. 

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "You're not supposed to just go wandering through every warp-gate you come across, you know."

The cub cocked his head to one side in a very Raziel-manner. "Just thought I'd see what you were up to," he said. "You're family. And I'm kind of glad I did. You look good, Dad."

Raziel looked briefly confused, then as the dragon-illusion wings flexed at his back, he smiled. "Yes," he said. "I suppose I do, now."

Aware of Lupa fuming and chewing her claws behind him, he ruffled the cub's ears roughly. "Get going," he said. 

The cub scampered off into the twilight shadows that were lengthening over the Nexus Mall. "Nice to meet your new girlfriend," he called over his shoulder, and wagged his stubby tail in farewell. 

"Down, girl," said Raziel, amused, as Lupa bared her teeth in a most unfriendly fashion. She sulked at him. "What is it now? Oh…I know." He steered her into the cinema and prodded her towards the ice-cream stand. "You didn't get your ice-cream fix yet. I'll buy."

She continued to look sulky, sitting down on a nearby ledge, as Raziel ordered up the most ridiculously-sized ice-cream sundae ever produced, and handed it to her. 

"Don't you like the flavours?"

Her lower lip pouted further.

"Not enough chocolate sauce? Too _much_ chocolate sauce?"

He gave up and sat down next to her on the ledge.

"Talk to me, Lupa…"

She shuffled one foot against the wall. 

"It's just that – you never told me you had a son…"

Raziel sighed. "Lots of things happen in a life as long as mine," he said. "Does it make me a bad person?"

"No…."

She dipped a finger into her ice-cream, which was dribbling down the sides of the cup, and licked it pensively. 

"Was she special?" she asked. 

"She was nothing like you," said Raziel, reasonably, "but then it depends what you mean by special. Needing specialist help?"

She scowled. He nudged her, teasing.

"Needing to be put in a _special_ institution?"

"Bastard," she growled, but she was trying not to grin, "I thought we were friends."

"We are," said Raziel, patting her on the head in an infuriating way. "Of course we are."

Lupa scraped up a lump of ice-cream and dabbed it onto his nose, where it gradually began to melt. 

"At least we _were_," Raziel corrected himself, scooping up a sizeable chunk of the stuff in his heavy claws and hefting it threateningly. 

"Raz, you're dripping," said Lupa, warningly. 

"So will you be in a minute. Sit still and suffer, woman!"

She dodged, laughing. "That's valuable ice-cream! You paid money for that!"

"So it's mine and I shall do with it as I wish. Stop ducking."

They were eventually asked to leave by irate cinema staff, who had obviously marked Lupa down as a troublemaker although they would no longer have recognised Raziel: and they ended up on the marble forecourt, Lupa rubbing at strawberry patches in her fur and Raziel fiddling with the image inducer on his wrist. He turned it off briefly to stretch his ragged wings, unaware that Lupa was watching him intently, and to straighten his tattered cowl. Seconds later, and the Reaver of Souls was gone again, hidden behind the hologram of Raziel the vampire. He finally caught Lupa's gaze upon him and grinned. 

"So," he said. "Ready to go after Kain again?"

"He is gonna be really confused by you, you know that?" said Lupa. "That and probably immensely peeved."

"Really? I was hoping he'd welcome me back with open arms…"

"Do we have to go right now?" Lupa groaned. "No offence to your heritage or anything, but that place is as cheerless as a morgue party. Don't you like my world?"

Raziel looked up at the sky, the last fading remains of sunset paling into blue-black above him. 

"Yes," he said. "I think so."

"Then let's stay for a while. You can stay with Kurt. He won't mind."

Raziel was watching the first stars come out above the neon glare of the Nexus Mall lights. He glanced across at her, and his eyes reflected yellow.

"I'll think about it," he said. 

__

And so it goes on…Will Raziel stay? Will Lupa ever tell him how she feels? Next thrilling chapter will be done…when I get round to it and am not snowed under with boring realworld stuff...^_^


	8. Hippy Children

****

MAGIC KINGDOM

Chapter 8 – Hippy Children

__

Disclaimer: Raziel, Kain, Nosgoth and the rest of the Legacy of Kain world belong to those clever computer folk at Eidos, Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights. Kurt Wagner and his image inducer were created by imaginative people at Marvel Comics: Lupa and Vladimir (oh god…them again..?) are my property and I shall do with them as I wish. Mwhahaha. ^_^ Donovan (Raziel's long-lost son) belongs to SheSmaug the Guardian of Tears. Middle-Earth is the creation of JRR Tolkein, although the elves, I suspect, have been around longer…

*wipes brow* wow, if this goes on, I'll have to have a whole separate chapter just for the disclaimer…anyway, here we go. Enjoy! :) This is the penultimate chapter of this little tale.

Raziel managed to stay in the Nexus for almost one whole day before the trouble began. 

That first day, Kurt cooked pancakes for breakfast, and then they all went out into the park opposite. Raziel, having lived in Nosgoth for most of his long years, was rather startled by all the greenery. Lupa and Kurt played catch with an old basketball.

"You're not allowed to play unless we get a medicine ball," Lupa warned Raziel. "I don't trust you not to puncture it."

Raziel, thwarted, sat down on the grass and examined the daisies in some confusion. There had been no flowers in Nosgoth since the vampires had come. The Seraphan side of him realised that he had rather missed them. 

Lupa, eventually tiring of a ball game where your opponent can teleport so fast he was almost in two places at once, returned to Raziel's side to find him carefully making a daisy chain, the tiny flowers held in the very tips of his claws.

"You know, if you still looked your old self, this image would be very weird," she said, flopping down next to him as he speared one stalk through the centre of another. "Actually, scratch that. It's weird anyway. Didn't your daddy ever tell you, vampires don't make daisy chains?"

"Daddy was away from home a lot," said Raziel, distantly, dangling his half-finished chain from one hand. "He travelled. He killed. He maimed. He wasn't known for talking about flowers."

Lupa chuckled. Raziel linked the two ends of the chain together and dropped it over her ears. She almost went cross-eyed trying to stare at the daisies on her brow. 

"I think I'm going to change my name and become a hippy flower-child," she said. "From now on I'm going to live on a kibbutz and you shall call me Moonbell Lovebegonia."

Raziel burst out laughing.

"And you shall be my consort, known as Bluemist Ecowarrior."

"I most certainly will not!"

Lupa paused and looked at him sidelong. 

"Will not what, though?" she asked. "Will not take on your rightful hippy-name….or will not be my consort?"

Raziel opened his mouth to reply, but too late – Nightcrawler had appeared in the branches of the tree above and dropped the basketball onto his head.

"I'm gonna put your tail in a blender, you little blue freak!" Lupa bellowed, giving chase to the mutant. Raziel sat back on the grassy bank, thinking.

In the afternoon and evening, with Kurt suitably chastised and gone over to Vladimir's place to play computer games, Lupa and Raziel drifted back to the Nexus Mall. Lupa had pizza on her mind – Raziel wasn't hungry. He rarely was. The pancakes that morning had merely provided him with new ways of making food sculpture. 

"We could try and get back into the cinema," Lupa said, shocking him out of his reverie. "I could wear a wig and a big trench-coat. Or you could hide me under your image inducer."

"Does it work like that?" Raziel asked, rather suspecting that it didn't. 

"I don't know." Lupa sat down on a bench as a crowd of tourists from Middle-Earth swarmed past them. "I don't even know if I want to see a movie anyway."

Raziel flattened against the wall to avoid being trampled by elves. "Are you all right?" he asked. "You seem rather…I don't know, quiet."

Lupa kicked her heels on the bench. "I've been meaning to talk to you," she said, "but I've never found the right moment exactly. Or the right way to do it. Or…oh, hell, there just isn't any right time or way to do this."

"What?"

Raziel by this time was thoroughly worried. "What is it? Are you sick? What's wrong?"

Lupa smiled at the concern reflected in his holo-image, but kept her eyes on the floor, not looking him in the face.

"No, no. I'm not sick. I'm not dying."

"Then what?"

"Raziel, would you do me a favour?"

"Of course. Name it."

Lupa turned her head and looked at him.

"Can you just turn the inducer off?" she said. "It might make this easier."

Raziel hesitated only a moment – and as his claw was moving towards the device on his wrist, a voice hailed him from across the rapidly emptying plaza.

"Raziel."

He stopped dead, inducer still active.

It was Kain.

"Lupa, get out of here," Raziel hissed in a low tone. Kain was still a distant figure on the other side of the mall – but he was approaching steadily, footfalls seeming loud on the tiled floor. 

"No. I'm not afraid of him."

"You should be! Now get going." He tried to shove her behind him, but, with his eyes fixed on Kain, his aim was poor and she dodged. 

"This is a touching little scene, Raziel," Kain's voice echoed from the shop-fronts. Aware that the holgrammatic wings were arched in anger above his back, Raziel growled, warningly. "I see that my information was correct…you are restored."

"How did you find out?" Raziel spat at him. 

"Simple. Your little whelp looks a lot like you, did you know that?" Kain, standing now merely a few yards away, folded his arms and smiled. "I think he got a little lost, playing in the warp-gates. I…helped him find his way home."

An image of the cub dangling helplessly in Kain's grip filled Raziel's mind, and he snarled. "If you've hurt my son…" 

Kain saw the flash of bared fangs and laughed. "Temper, temper, Raziel! It doesn't do to get angry…you fight so poorly when you're angry."

Lupa, glaring from behind Raziel, said:

"I would say that it doesn't do to be arrogant, Mr Kain…especially to the man who has already opened a can of whup-ass on you once."

Kain peered around Raziel's arm and said: "Ah, yes, your new conquest. I see restoring your old self has restored your old character as well."

"Conquest?! Let me at him. I'll bite his kneecaps off –"

"Lupa. Sssh," said Raziel, dangerously.

Kain drew close, scrutinising his 'son' from all angles. Raziel held as still as a statue, thinking every moment that Kain would see it, realise that it was all an illusion. 

Kain took a step back, an expression of almost-curiosity emerging on his face. "Fascinating," he murmured. "How did you do it? There is no way it could be done."

"You'd be surprised what these new worlds can teach a man," Raziel said, stonily. Kain nodded, slowly. 

"This place is certainly a revelation. I never knew the gate system could be used to travel through the different physical dimensions as well as through time…"

"Time? What are you talking about?" Raziel snapped, but Kain contented himself with looking smug and not answering.

"Enough of this. I killed you once. It's time to repeat the action."

"You want him?"

Lupa, to Raziel's horror, stepped out in front of him. 

"You want him?" she repeated. "Then you have to go through me."

Kain, to his credit, managed a whole two seconds of calm before bellowing with laughter.

"You, werewolf?" he spluttered. "Skin-changer? Four-foot brain on two-foot legs?"

"That's it," said Lupa, eyes blazing, "you're going down, buddy."

Kain saw her crouch, saw her eyes light up from within like yellow flame. Lupa's wolf-girl shape collapsed inwards, changing, bones lengthening, hands flattening into paws. Raziel too watched, transfixed, as his friend changed into one of the largest silver wolves he had ever seen.

Lupa the wolf coiled like a snake ready to strike, then lunged forward at Kain, red jaws open in a snarl, claws skittering on the shiny floor. Kain grasped her by the ruff, his claws drawing blood to stain the silver fur, and the wolf yelped. Her cry of pain finally goaded Raziel into action, and he swung at Kain, blind with fury. Kain dropped Lupa to the ground, where she lay licking weakly at her wound, and engaged Raziel in combat instead. 

"Your destiny is not in this place, Raziel," Kain taunted as he ducked a kick aimed at his head. "You should come back to Nosgoth. Go back to the Abyss. It's safer for you."

Raziel charged at him and body-slammed him into a shop window, which shattered, showering them both with glass and the remains of a display of tennis balls, which bounced cheerfully around Raziel's hooves as he pivoted to avoid Kain's inevitable roar and swift retaliation. He wasn't fast enough. Kain drove him through the open doors of the shop next-door and they ended up wrestling in a broken pile of ladies' fashion items and coathangers. 

"Look," Raziel snapped, shoving a floral vest top into Kain's mouth, "little flowers. On you they look good. Maybe you should join me and Lupa on our kibbutz."

"Your wolf-girl won't live to go anywhere with you when I'm done," Kain growled, picking up the nearest thing to hand and hitting Raziel over the head with it. Unfortunately, it was a handbag. Raziel snorted. 

"Handbags at dawn, Kain?"

He covered his head with his claws as a further barrage of blows with expensive mock-crocodile skin rained down on him. Unfortunately, the buckle on the handbag strap caught his wrist, and the image inducer spat fat white sparks as it exploded.

Raziel looked up at Kain with empty eyes as the vampire image faded like mist from around him. Kain was staring at him in confusion.

"What is this trickery?" he whispered. "What have you done?"

Okay. I'm sorry. It's a cliffhanger! (a technical story-telling term and everything) Next chapter up…soon…I hope…^_^ I will do my best!


	9. Dropped Dead Gorgeous

****

MAGIC KINGDOM

Chapter 9 – Dropped Dead Gorgeous

__

Disclaimer: Raziel, Kain, Nosgoth: belong to Crystal Dynamics, Eidos, Silicon Knights. Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) and his image inducer: belong to Marvel Comics. Lupa and Vladimir: mine. All mine.

Thank you for reviewing, and for bearing with this rather rambling story all this time! This is the final chapter in the Magic Kingdom era for Lupa & Raziel. ;) GoT: I'm glad little Donovan got back home OK....*patpats scared Donny*

Raziel took advantage of Kain's momentary distraction to punch him very hard in the face. The master vampire fell back a pace or two. Raziel tore the smoking image inducer from his wrist and dropped it to the ground, as it had been burning into his already ravaged blue skin. 

__

Raziel.

The voice in his head was very sudden, but very weak. He spun on his heel, dodging a swipe from Kain. The Elder God again?

__

Raz, please. 

Not the God then, thought Raziel, _he never,** ever** calls me Raz._

__

Can you hear me? It's me, Lupa. 

Raziel glanced across to the wounded wolf, who was still lying on her side but looking over at him with bright golden eyes. Then he dropped as Kain, swearing, tried to shoulder him into a wall. 

__

If you can hear me, spread your wings. 

Flat to the ground, rolling, crouching, Raziel flared his ruined wings in reply.

__

So you're not as psychic-void as you look. Good, said Lupa, with a weak trace of humour. _Kain can't stay here. We have to put him back through the gate_. 

Raziel tried to broadcast his thought of "Well, _duh_" as best he could, but Kain's claws came within an inch of grasping his throat and he skittered away into the candy shop a few doors down. 

__

I'll see what I can do to help…

No, Lupa! Raziel mind-screamed at her. _Stay still! You're injured. He will kill you_.

He backed up too far and dislodged a display of chocolate bunnies, which proceeded to spill out in a heap around his hooves. Kain snarled.

"I'll teach you to try and deceive me, ungrateful child."

He crunched forward over the bunnies and made a further grab for Raziel, who dodged and shoved Kain's claws into the candy-floss maker behind him. Mittened in pink spun sugar, Kain roared angrily.

"Hasn't sweetened your temper, then?" Raziel taunted from the doorway, before running off across the plaza, trying to scrape crushed jelly-babies from his hooves as he went. To his relief, the wolf was still lying where she had fallen and was making no move to assist him in his battle. Her eyes were closed. 

Raziel took up a defensive stance in front of her, only too aware that Kain was likely to try any means to defeat him, including threatening those he cared about. Lupa stirred a little at his feet, and he realised that her shape was changing again, back to the wolf-girl he was used to. Her red halter-top was ripped and bloody where Kain had caught her, and her thunderstorm flares hung low across her hips, torn through the waistband. 

Kain was striding rapidly toward them once again, trailing chocolate bunnies and the remains of the candy-floss, and looking as dark an approaching storm. Lupa opened her eyes and blinked up at Raziel, who was bracing himself for Kain's charge and firing the occasional glyph to try and slow his opponent down. 

"You, stay down," he ordered, feeling her gaze upon him. "Much as I would love your help right now, you're in no state to give it."

"Silly boy," said Lupa, in a dreamy tone, "there's more than one way to help…"

Kain's head flicked from side to side in confusion as a cloud of purple smoke exploded around him, enveloping him. A sudden weight was on his shoulders: a blue, spade-tipped tail as strong as steel cable wrapped around his throat. A devilish face with yellow, glowing eyes peered down into Kain's with a happy, fang-toothed grin. 

"Surprise," said Nightcrawler, cheerfully, and teleported.

Raziel gently put his right claw under Lupa's arm and helped her as, with a wince of pain, she gained her feet.

"You called him," said Raziel. It wasn't really a question. The wolf-girl nodded. "In your head, like you spoke to me?"

"Wolves don't have vocal chords that make words, and the telepathy's harder when people are at a distance," said Lupa, fiddling with her torn halter-strap ruefully, "but he heard me, all the same. He's used to people speaking to him telepathically, apparently."

Kurt Wagner reappeared, dropping out of thin air and looking slightly battered.

"Friend of yours?" he queried, giving Raziel a stern look. "He put up a good fight, even though I 'ported him about like I was playing hopscotch."

"Did you do it, though?" Lupa demanded. The mutant gave her the thumbs-up. 

"I made several jumps until he was dazed, then booted him through the gate, just like you said. He's a strong one, though…I doubt he'll stay disorientated for long over there. Vladimir closed the gate down but he can't seal it."

Raziel pushed Lupa's arm off onto Kurt's shoulder. "I have to go after him."

"So soon?" said Lupa, weakly. "I was hoping we'd have time for a cup of tea and a bun."

Raziel looked at her carefully. "Will you be all right?" he said. 

"Feh," dismissed Lupa with a wave of her uninjured arm, "a mere scrape. I took worse when I was a cub in my old pack. You run along now and make with the patricide."

Raziel and Kurt exchanged brief glances: then the Reaver of Souls turned on his heel and headed out of the Nexus Mall at a run. He did not look back.

"Ah, well," said Lupa, philosophically, "that's that over with, I guess."

Kurt frowned at her.

"You didn't tell him, did you?" he said.

"What? Tell him what? OW!" He had poked her in the arm. "You're cruel and heartless, Kurt Wagner. I'm hurt here."

"You didn't tell him how you feel, and now he's run off into a situation where he may get killed?!"

Lupa looked stricken.

"You don't think about these things carefully enough, _liebchen_," said Kurt, gently.

Raziel ran along the corridor, his head lifted, the Soul Reaver curling into life around his arm. He was close to Kain, so close he could practically feel him. The ground in front of the gate had been empty when Raziel had run through it, but a tell-tale trail of decapitated chocolate bunnies had led off towards the ice-caves and towards a large cauldron Raziel had puzzled over earlier: then, a short constriction later, towards the time-streamer's clock and beyond, through rabbit-warren-like tunnels and corridors until he reached and passed, not without confusion, the star-windows that seemed to baffle time…

And then, standing outside a newly opened warp-gate room, Raziel knew that Kain was very close. 

"Okay, how would you have done it?" Lupa demanded, jogging at Kurt's side as they headed back to the gate that had carried Kain through to the Nexus. Vladimir was standing by the gate, his hand on the stone arch of it, brow furrowed in concentration. His tail lashed angrily. 

"I don't know! How about, "Raziel, I like you, and despite your corpse-like visage I would like to see how a non-sexual relationship between us could develop?""

"Because _that_ makes it sound _soooo_ attractive," Lupa groused. "Vladimir! Let go of the gate! I want it open!"

"What? Again?" Vladimir lowered his hand and the gate exploded into life. "I wish you lot would make up your minds. A blue fellow with wings ran through here a minute ago shouting and waving what looked like a light-sabre around…"

Lupa paused on the edge of the gate and looked back. Kurt gave her an encouraging grin and a push on the shoulder.

"Go to work, wolf," he said. Lupa dived through the gap and was gone. Vladimir sighed and stuck his hands into his pockets.

"She's mad, that girl," he said. "Mad."

"_Ja_, I know," Kurt agreed, an evil smile on his face. "She's just gone to tell that blue guy she loves him. How could anyone love a blue guy anyway?"

Raziel stood in the centre of the chamber, twisting to try and keep Kain in view.

Messing with time…was the man mad?

Kain reappeared, another level up, and fired. Raziel took the blow without flinching. Somehow, he seemed shielded if he stayed in the exact centre of the room…strange but true. 

Still, this climbing to try and hit Kain was a real bastard of a job. Especially as Kain got wary and lingered higher and higher up. 

Raziel, attempting a further assault on the walls, got hit by another blast and fell back to the safe area, scowling. He could hear Kain taunting him from unseen ledges high above.

"Tag…you're it, Raziel."

Then, unexpectedly, he added: "Ow!"

Then again: "Ow! Stop that!"

Raziel turned around, in time to catch, out the corner of his eye, a small projectile fly across the roof-space and hit Kain in the head. 

"Don't you like playing marbles, Mister Kain?" said a familiar voice. 

"Lupa?" called Raziel in complete disbelief. "Are you up there?"

A blue-veined marble dropped down between his hooves. There was a note tied to it. Raziel unravelled the grubby paper carefully and read the following in Lupa's untidy, looping scrawl:

__

Hey, babe. Couldn't see you go waltzing off into certain death without saying goodbye properly. So when you see the big red marble hit him in the balls, you go get him. 

Love you,

Lupa

Raziel, as if transfixed, looked up at Kain, who was still going "Ow!" periodically as Lupa peppered him with marbles from her slingshot. There was a brief pause in the barrage: then a large marble, gleaming with ugly red light, flew straight and true and struck Kain, hard.

"Got him! Right in the family jewels!" Lupa's voice crowed from almost directly above Raziel, as Kain sank to his knees. "Run, Raz! Run!"

Raziel ran. He scaled the three ledges, strode up to Kain, who was scrabbling away towards the gate behind him, and swiped at him with his claws. Kain, mercifully still unable to speak, wheezed out a laugh and hobbled through the time-gate…

…and was gone.

Raziel, his sense of purpose draining, turned away. From this new height he could clearly see Lupa on the opposite ledge, tucking her slingshot into her belt and grinning triumphantly.

"Did you get him? Huh?"

"Yes and no," said Raziel, wearily, sitting down on the stone ledge and hanging his legs over the drop. "Yes, I drove him out of Nosgoth in this century, and I doubt he'll be back. He doesn't have to come back. He's out there wreaking havoc in the time zone of his choice."

"Trust me," Lupa called over as she scrambled down into the main chamber, "he won't be wreaking anything much with bruises on his –"

"Yes, yes."

The wolf-girl, with some effort, climbed up to sit on the ledge with him. 

"Raz, are you okay?"

He shrugged. 

"It just seems as if all this killing I've done…has been for nothing. Kain still lives. He's still out there."

Lupa leaned her head against his shoulder and said, "Never mind, love. You'll get him."

"I'm sick of it, Lupa. And I'm tired."

"I know you are."

They sat like that, on the shelf, for some minutes in silence.

"That note," Raziel began, sounding slightly uncomfortable, "and what you said just now…"

Lupa chuckled. "I can't think why it's been so hard to say all this time," she said. "Okay, you're not exactly a poster-child. Okay, you're dead. But you're a lot of fun. And – now I want you to be very clear about this – I will never, ever, sleep with you – but I just thought…we work well together, don't we?"

"We seem to."

"And you hug well for someone so bony."

"Thank you."

"Plus you were really very good-looking, when you were younger and not a soul-eating thing."

"Age ruins the beauty of us all," said Raziel, dryly. They looked at each other, amused, and Raziel's claws tucked in against Lupa's bloodstained waist-band. 

"But I guess it's a bit too late, isn't it," said Lupa, sadly, running her fingers over the smooth length of his claws, "because you're going after him. After Kain."

"Oh, I don't know," said Raziel, lazily, "it's all temporal, isn't it? If I go through that portal, I'm not bound by time anymore, and in that case it doesn't really matter when I _start_…"

He stood up, grasping her about the waist, and glided them both across to the door. 

"So we're going back to the Nexus, then?" said Lupa as they walked out, heading for the warp-gate. 

"Why not. I think I need a holiday."

Their voices echoed as they turned the corner.

"Just one thing though," Raziel's voice said, sternly. "I know we're friends and everything –"

"Best of friends." A pause. "More than friends? That sounds slightly dubious."

"But seriously," Raziel's voice cut in again. "Don't call me 'babe'."

__

And so it ends…*sob, sob* I hope you enjoyed Lupa & Raz's little adventure. I'm sure they'll be back at some stage. ^_^ Thanks for reading! Any ideas as to what they should get up to next gratefully received by email.


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